Captains Courageous VII: Big Names Quiz

Answer: Charles Laughton

As of 2017, "Mutiny on the Bounty" was the last film (of only 3) to win the Academy Award for Best Picture as its only Oscar winning category. Three men were nominated for Best Actor, including Laughton, Clark Gable for Fletcher Christian, and Franchot Tone. As a result the category of Best Supporting Actor was created.

Three years earlier, Laughton won the Best Actor Oscar in the title role in "The Private Life of Henry VIII." He was also nominated for Best Actor in 1958's "Witness for the Prosecution". English born, Charles Laughton passed away in 1962 and is buried at Forest Lawn.

Answer: Jimmy Stewart

Who better to play the pilot of the "Phoenix" than actual World War II Air Force pilot and hero, Jimmy Stewart? Stewart continued his service to the nation after the war, serving also as a pilot in Vietnam and eventually attaining the rank of Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, until retiring in 1968.

As a member of the Air Force, Stewart earned 15 medals and citations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the French Croix de Guerre. As an actor he was nominated for five Best Actor Academy Awards, winning one for his role in "The Philadelphia Story". He was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985.

Answer: Kurt Russell

Not a big money maker, "Captain Ron" ran a budget of $24 million in production, but grossed only $22.5 million at the box office.

After an injury forced Russell to retire from minor league baseball, he turned to acting and has made several feature films as well as television. His highest acclaims came from TV in 1979 with an Emmy nomination for his role as Elvis in the made-for-TV movie of the same name, and from the big screen for a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor in 1984's "Silkwood".

Answer: Rex Harrison

English-born Harrison (Sir Reginald Carey Harrison) may be best known for his role as Professor Henry Higgins, both on the stage, for which he won a Tony in 1957, and on the big screen, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar in 1964. In 1959 he won his first Tony for his role as Henry VIII in "Anne of a Thousand Days".

In 1963 he was nominated for an Oscar for his role of Julius Caesar in "Cleopatra".

Answer: Errol Flynn

"Captain Blood" launched the careers of Flynn and co-star Olivia de Havilland, both of whom were relatively unknown prior to this film. It turned out to be the first of eight movies the pair would star in together. A third star, Basil Rathbone, would appear with Flynn and de Havilland in 1938 in "The Adventures of Robin Hood".

Answer: Russell Crowe

Australian Peter Weir wrote, produced, and directed "Master and Commander", one of a five films which he'd directed and which together garnered six Academy Award nominations for him personally. "Master and Commander" was nominated for 10 Oscars, but won only two: one for sound editing and one for cinematography.

New Zealander Russell Crowe has been nominated for three Best Actor Oscars, winning for his title role as Maximus Decimus Meridius in 2000's "Gladiator".

Answer: John Wayne

"Fort Apache" was the first of three films known collectively today as John Ford's "cavalry trilogy", the other two being 1949's "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and 1950's "Rio Grande". All three starred John Wayne.

According to Wikipedia, Wayne was to "star in 142 pictures", of which 83 were Westerns. Nonetheless, his only Oscar win came toward the end of his career, in 1969 for his role as Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit". His final film was 1976's "The Shootist".

Answer: Johnny Depp

Based on the Disney theme park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, the first film of the franchise, "The Curse of the Black Pearl", was released in 2003. It was followed in 2006 by "Dead Man's Chest", the highest grossing of the first four films, drawing $423 million in the US with a total of $1 billion, 66 million worldwide. The next two releases were "At World's End" in 2007, and "On Stranger Tides" in 2011.

In February of 2015, production began in Australia on a fifth film, "Dead Men Tell No Tales", and concluded in July of that year, with a release in May of 2017.

Depp has been nominated for three Best Actor Oscars for his roles in 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl", 2004's "Finding Neverland", and 2007's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street".

Answer: George Clooney

A huge success at the box office, "The Perfect Storm" would eventually bring in over $180 million in the US and another $146 internationally.

A veteran of several tongue-in-cheek theater successes such as "The Men Who Stare at Goats", "Three Kings", and the "Oceans Eleven" series, Clooney has also done historically-related films as "The Perfect Storm" and "The Monuments Men", He has won two Oscars, one for Best Supporting Actor in "Syriana" and a Best Picture Oscar as one of the producers of "Argo".

Answer: Will Smith

The highest-grossing film of 1996, "Independence Day" earned two Academy Award nominations, winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Smith began his career in entertainment as The Fresh Prince in the rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince and went on to win four Grammys, five MTV Video Music Awards and six American Music Awards. Then from the TV series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", he went on to feature films, starring in such big hits as "Bad Boys", "Men in Black", "Enemy of the State", "Ali", "I, Robot", and "I Am Legend". He earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in "Ali" and in 2006's "The Pursuit of Happyness". In 2007, "Newsweek" called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood."